SPEECH 

F 685 
. S26 
Copy 1 



HON. JOHN H. SAVAGE, OF TENNESSEE, 

ON THE 




KANSAS CONTESTED ELECTION, 



■ELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JULY 31, 1356. 



**r. 



60 WASHINGTON"?. 
t I -.i\ \T THE OONUltBSSIONAL GLOBK 01 
1856, 



Ft * £' 



Kt~± 



KANSAS CONTESTED ELECTION. 



The House having under consideration the Resolutions 
reported by the Committee of Elections in the Contested- 
Election Case from the Territory of Kansas — 

Mr. SAVAGE said: 

Mr. Speaker: I cannot promise to compensate 
the attention which gentlemen may choose to 
give me by anything brilliant or entertaining, but 
1 do hope, in a quiet way, to compare the state- 
ments made in the report of the majority of the 
committee sent out by order of this House, with 
well-established facts, so as to show, beyond the 
possibility of a doubt, that this whole Kansas 
difficulty was in its beginning a traitorous assault 
upon the law and authority of the United States 
and the rights of the people of Kansas, and now 
in its progress assails justice and truth; and that 
the report of the majority of the committee so 
seut is a compound of the grossest partiality, mis- 
representation, and perversion. And were the 
triers in this case an honest jury, sworn to find 
the truth, instead of a body of excited politicians, 
maddened by the hope of public plunder and po- 
litical power, no honest mind could doubt for a 
moment the verdict that would be rendered; the 
boasted facts of the majority report would be pro- 
nounced the most infamous"fiction ever presented 
to a legislative body. Yet it may be that we can 
elicit truth out of this dark mass of perversion 
and falsehood. In my opinion it does contain 
some truths. It may be possible to find some 
standard that will separate truth from fiction, and 
point to the verdict we ought to render. I think 
there is one honest document in these eleven hun- 
dred pages which will constitute a standard of 
truth, and by that I intend to try this case; for, 
so far as this Kansas report is concerned, I again 
repeat it is basely partisan, unworthy of credit, 
and contains no material fact, fairly stated, from 
beginning to end. 

The gentleman [Mr. Sherman] who last ad- 
dressed you spoke of " the facts reported," and 
it is proper, before entering upon the details, that 
1 should select a single specimen that will startle 
truthful men, and prove that the strong language 
I have used to characterize this report does it no 
injustice. They report to this House, as a fact 
material and important, " that Governor Reeder 
received a greater number of votes of resident citi- 



zens than John W. Whitfield. Yet there is not 
a particle of proof in the whole one thousand one 
hundred and eighty-eight pages, except the dep- 
osition of Lo wry , who tells us of a single precinct 
that shows that Governor Reeder got any votes at 
all. It is true the committee, without any authen- 
tication, have reported two hundred and twenty- 
two pages purporting to be returns in certain 
elections held under the authority of one James 
H. Lane; but, whether they are genuine docu- 
ments — the result of an honest transaction, or base 
forgeries, the committee have not dared to show 
by proof. It is a rule of law, that where a man 
suppresses or destroys testimony in his posses- 
sion, it shall be adjudged against him; and it is a 
fair conclusion from surrounding circumstances, 
that these papers are fabricated to suit the occa- 
sion, and that a majority of the committee, know- 
ing this fact, have loaned themselves to give them 
currency 

In January, 1855, Governor Reeder ordered 
a census to be taken of the inhabitants of the 
Territory, which was completed about the 1st of 
March; and on the same day he ordered an elec- 
tion for members of the Legislature, to be held 
on the 30th of that month. He admits that in 
appointing judges at the polls he gave the free- 
State men two to one; which proves most clearly 
that a census taken under his authority would not 
be too favorable to southern interests. It is the 
only document in this vast volume upon which 
we can place any reliance for a statement of facts. 
It originated before the deep prejudice which 
afterwards followed had been stirred up. North- 
ern men dare not say that its statements are 
unjust to them. Governor Reeder, for reasons best 
known to himself, ordered the former residences 
of the settlers to be reported. I, like the gentle- 
man from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] have, for the 
purposes of this argument, carefully counted the 
former residences of each of the voters reported 
in this census, and find that our figures substan- 
tially agree; and now, after all the clamor we have 
heard here and elsewhere about "down-trodden 
and invaded Kansas," it does astonish honest, 
plain men, throughout the country, to see that by 
Reeder's own census a large majority of the settlers 
of that Territory are from the southern States. 
The account stands as follows: two thousand nine 



hundred and five voters are reported as the whole 
number — of which one thousand six hundred 
and seventy are from southern States, and one 
thousand and eighteen from northern States, with 
p remainder of two hundred and seventeen for- 
eigners and others whose former residence is not 
reported. With this state of things before them, 
the majority of the committee have been reckless 
enough to bring in a report, which, if not totally 
false, answers the same purpose — by a suppres- 
sion of all the facts, material and necessary to a 
correct understanding of the matters in dispute; 
and 1 am content to apply to their nefarious 
work that universal rulo of all codes of law and 
morals, that willful suppression is criminal false- 
hood. 

I will nowcompare the statements of this report 
with the census of Governor Reeder, in connec- 
tion with the election and representative districts, 
and show that the pro-slavery party, by the legal 
votes cast, must have elected a large majority of 
the first Kansas Legislature; and, if this be true, 
no matter how many Missourians may have voted, 
it cannot alter either the law or equity of General 
Whitfield's right to his seat. The following table 
will show the strength of parties in the election 
districts, as exhibited by the census: 

ELECTION DISTRICTS. 

Settlers from. Settlers from 

Ditfrict. the North. the South. 

1st 280 88 

•>d 67 139 

3d 49 37 

4th 23 23 

".th 129 295 

0th 83 155 

:tli 32 21 

Sth 12 26 

yth 27 10 

10th 29 27 

11th - 28 

12th 50 49 

13th 22 55 

14th 42 286 

15th 37 206 

16th 125 192 

17th 10 40 

1018 1670 

I admit a free-State majority in the first district; 
and the committee have proved, by the oath of 
Ladd and Others, that Bond, Willis, and Stearns 
were driven from the election ground of this pre- 
liinct; but these witnesses most positively state 
that it was not to preTent them from voting, but 
l>ecause one was accused of acting the bully; the 
other of abducting a negro woman; and another 
of taking notes for the New York Tribune; and, 
strange to tell, these eleven hundred and eighty- 
eight pages nowhere prove that any other man 
was prevented from voting. I appealed to the 
gentleman [Mr. Sherman] who made this report 
to name another man, and you saw that he was 
silent. 

Of the election in the sixth district this beauti- 
ful report makes the usual charges: five or six 
hundred Missourians present; Sheriff Jones and 
pistols; and concludes with the false statement, 
that " we are satisfied from the testimony that, 
had the actual settlers alone voted, the free-State 
men would have been elected by a handsome 
majority," and ynl the census of their own man 
reports in this district one hundred and thirty-two 
voters from the southern States — sixty-seven 



from northern States. You see the unblushing 
impudence — the brazen falsehood of this infamous 
document ! I take no pleasure in uttering these 
harsh words; but if gentlemen forget the high 
obligations they owe to truth and honor — if a 
man is false to himself and his reputation in the 
dirty work of party warfare, I will not be rec- 
reant to duty, but shall denounce his act as it 
deserves, if he were as tall as Lucifer. They have 
put forth these broad, unfounded statements to 
mislead the public mind, which are contradicted 
by Reeder's census at every step; and if ever 
that gentleman uttered any truth at any time, it 
cannot be supposed that he lied in this document 
in favor of the South. He, then, had no interest 
so to do; but when these gentlemen made their 
report, the power and necessity of a rebellious 
and traitorous party demanded a perversion of 
the truth. 

Of the third district, the committee say four to 
one free-State man. Governor Reeder says forty- 
nine to thirty-seven; both reports cannot be true. 

Of the fourth district, it is reported that " the 
free State men constituted a decided majority of 
the actual settlers. " Governor Reeder says free- 
State men twenty-three, southern men twenty- 
three, and one from New Mexico. 

Of the fifth district, the report says: " From 
the testimony, the whole district appears to have 
been largely free-State, and had none but actual 
settlers voted the free-State candidates would have 
been elected by a large majority;" but Reeder's 
census shows two hundred and ninety-five south- 
ern men, and one hundred and twenty-nine north- 
ern men. It is impossible to believe so gross a 
perversion was the result of misconception. 

Of the sixth district, the report admits that the 
pro-slavery candidates received a majority, and I 
imagine for once it told the truth. 

Of the seventh district, the report says two hun- 
dred to three hundred Missourians were present; 
some residents did not vote; twenty-five legal 
votes were cast; nearly all the settlers were free- 
State men. The census shows thirty-two north- 
ern men, twenty-one southern men; and it is thus 
seen that the report fraudulently pretends that 
the pro-slavery party, with a large body of Mis- 
sourians to help thcfi, only got three of these 
twenty-one votes, while the other party got 
twenty-three of thirty-two — some residents not 
voting. Such facts and such logic are only worthy 
the cause they attempt to rustain. 

Of the eighth district, the report says: "in it 
thirty-seven votes were cast, of whom a majority 
voted the free State ticket." The census shows 
twenty-five southern men, and twelve free-State 
men. With such facts contradicting these state- 
ments, will any man believe anything contained in 
this report, when it is seen that the census is true. 
and the report had inducements to be false ? The 
responsibility of this language is not mine: let 
those who brought this base pile of " frauds and 
perjuries" into this House answer to the country. 
Ii deserves more than I have said of it, although 
it has cost the people large sums, and Congress 
much time, in its preparation. Of the ninth district 
there is no complaint; and of the tenth, it is said 
that ten Indians and eleven free State men, not 
entitled, voted, who neutralize each other. Of 
the eleventh and twelfth nothing is said that re- 
quires an answer. 



Of the thirteenth district, the committee say 
"a majority of free-State men" — only twelve legal 
votes cast; Governor Reeder says "there are fifty- 
five southern men and twenty-two free-State 
men;" which scatters to the winds another solemn 
allegation of this committee; and members on the 
other side of this House dare not trust these reck- 
less perversions unless, in their anxiety to place 
one of their own party in the presidential chair, 
they are ready to trample all justice, truth, and 
honor under foot. 

Of the fourteenth district the report admits that 
parties were pretty near equally divided — but 
strives to make the impression that the free-State 
men had a " small majority," suppressing the 
material fact recorded in Reeder 's census, that in 
this district there were two hundred and eighty- 
six southern men and only forty-two free-State 
men — showing a clear mistake of more than two 
hundred votes in a single district. This is a fair 
specimen of the truth of this report. Such " facts " 
as it contains are not surpassed by the stories of 
Gulliver, Munchausen , or the wildest fancies of 
fictitious history. I denounce them as unmiti- 
gated, partial, and fraudulent perversions, made 
for electioneering purposes, and unworthy the 
consideration of just men. 

Of the fifteenth district, the report says: " the 
free-State men thought themselves equal, and 
some claimed a majority; but the census shows 
two hundred and six ^southern men and thirty- 
seven northern men." Such truth and such honor 
are truly Black Republican ! 

Of the sixteenth district, the report says: " the 
testimony is divided as to the relative strengh of 
parties;" but the census showsone hundred and 
ninety-two southern men, one hundred and twen- 
ty-nine northern men, and more than sixty for- 
eigners, who, it is said, always vote the Demo- 
cratic ticket; and yet this committee, in search of 
truth, could not tell which had the majority. 

Of the seventeenth and eighteenth districts, 
nothing is said that demands a reply. 

In conclusion, the report states the whole 
number of legal votes cast at this election, four- 
teen hundred and ten, with a discrepancy of five 
hundred and twelve; of which number the free- 
State men cast seven hundred and ninety-one, 
which leaves six hundred and nineteen south- 
ern men. The absurdity and unfairness of this 
conclusion is fully manifested by the fact that 
there were sixteen hundred and seventy southern 
men to one thousand and eighteen northern men 
in the Territory; and yet they report that, with 
near five thousand Missourians to help us get 
our men out, and drive theirs from the polls, the 
northern men cast two hundred and seventy-two 
more votes than the other party. Such a state- 
ment is good for nothing, except to dishonor 
those who made it. 

Again: the rej>ort says " thirty-eight legal votes 
were cast in the eighth, and thirty in the second 
district;" thus claiming that every vote was polled 
in the first, and not a sixth part in the latter. 
This conclusion is worse than a guess — it is a 
reckless statement, proved untrue by surrounding 
facts; and I must so denounce it or retire from 
duty, which is not my feeling at the presant 
time. 

The election districts were laid off into repre- 
sentative districts, some being divided for that 



purpose. The following table is a reliable ap- 
proximation, based on Governor Reeder's cen- 
sus : 





01 

> 

■s 


S . 
2-5 


S 

p • 


S 2 


22 


Election Districts. 


to 


If 


>- o 

50 •* 


DQja 

. S 

OJ 0> 


CO" 


17th and 14th compose 


1st 


34 


63 


. 


1 


1st 


2d 


280 


88 


3 


. 


2d and 13th " 


3d 


89 


187 


. 


2 


3d « 


4th 


49 


37 


1 




7th and 8th « 


5th 


44 


47 


. 


1 


6th " 


6th 


83 


155 


. 


2 


5th « 


7th 


129 


295 


. 


4 


9th and 10th " 


8th 


56 


36 


1 


. 


11th and 12th " 


9th 


50 


77 


. 


1 


13th " 


10th 


22 


55 


. 


1 


14th, 15th, 16th « 


11th 


79 


-19-2 


. 


2 


14th « 


12lh 


42 


286 


- 


2 


15th " 


13th 


37 


206 


. 


2 


16th " 


14th 


125 


192 


- 


3 


Total 


5 


21 











Not being able to ascertain the fractions, I 
have taken whole districts; and it is seen that, with- 
out the aid of the foreign vote, which our oppo- 
nents charge is always cast for the Democratic 
ticket, the southern men elect tw&nty-one mem- 
bers, and the free-State men only five; and these 
facts and figures are a full answer to the false 
charge of usurpation that comes up from the 
other side of the House. 

The storm that now rages over this country 
is political — raised by ambitious men in hopes 
of obtaining power and public plunder; all our 
troubles since Congress first assembled — the 
loud shrieks for freedom and Kansas — the unjust 
denunciations of the southern people, here and else- 
where, are the result of this cause. We are now 
in the midst of a presidential struggle, which car- 
ries with it the government of this great country 
forthe next four years, togetherwith the disburse- 
ment of two or three hundred millions of public 
money. It is a great contest, and may bring, 
as some fear it will, the clash of arms, the shout 
of battle, and civil war. The elements of social 
and national harmony are broken up; and the 
bitter waters of sectional hatred and party strife 
burst in upon us from every quarter of the hori- 
zon; all decency, all propriety, all respects for 
truth, justice, and the constitutional rights of the 
South, are forgotten or disregarded by our ad- 
versaries, who, casting off the duties of states- 
men and the character of gentlemen, refuse even 
the poor security of personal responsibility for 
the falsehood and slander they utter. 

This whole system of party warfare is lawless 
and revolutionary; and, being founded on false 
assumptions, evinces a fixed design to rule or 
ruin. Kansas is made a pretext, but it is simply 
a part of the general agitat^m long since com- 
menced. As the foundation of their system, they 
assume the equality of the negro and Anglo- 
Saxon races; and their doctrines, if carried nut, 
could never elevate the negro, but would sink him 
lower, and carry the white man down to his 
level. While they speak these things, their acts 
prove the hypocrisy of their professions. Until 
these grave senators, divines, and politicians, take 



6 



to themselves wives, and give their daughters in 
marriage, and commingle on equal terms with the 
African, they have failed to do that which is most 
material to establish their own sincerity and the 
practical wisdom of their theories. 

Admitting that negro slavery is constitutional, 
and that they dare not touch it in the States 
where it exists, yet for political effect, in vio- 
lation of a plain principle of law, they abuse the 
South for the enjoyment of a constitutional right, 
and utter perpetual threats against an institution 
they dare not molest; thus trampling under 
foot the bond of their fathers, and pouring out 
words more bitter than gall or wormwood oh the 
heads of their brothers. One people cannot inflict 
greater wrongs than these upon another. 

Sir, the negro is not the equal of the white man; 
and the politician who asserts that he is, cannot. 
be otherwise than dishonest. In the northern 
States, from whence this destroying flood of slan- 
der and abuse assails our peace, he is an outcast 
and a stranger. Shorn of his civil and social rights, 
he drags ou1 a miserable existence — a living mon- 
umenl of the hypocrisy and bitter hostility of 
northern demagogues to the southern people. I 
am here to tell these wicked agitators that, when 
they assert that African slavery is an evil, or a 
crime, socially, morally, politically , or in the sight 
of God, they recklessly contradict the words of 
revelation and the history of mankind; neither in 
the commands, nor the providence of Omnipo- 
tence, have woes been pronounced against it. In 
vain may they look in the decalogue, the teach- 
ing of the prophets, or the gospel of our Savior, 
lor its condemnation; but it is sufficient for the 
purposes of this argument, to appeal to the annals 
of history, and ask where are the achievements of 
the negro? — where are his empires ? — where his 
— w lure his civilization? — where the fields 
of his glory or the monuments of his greatness ? 
They are not seen upon the face of the earth, nor 
are they found in the volumes that record the 
glories of fallen nations. He has lived upon the 
world in barbarism and blood, and the pathway 
of his existence might now be unknown, but for 
lights of surrounding nations that have shone 
upon the darkness of his abode. The brightest 
page in the history of the race is that which re- 
cords the servitude of the slaves of the United 
States. In morals, in intelligence) in happiness 
and religion, in steady and effective industry, 
there is no nation of free negroes half their 
equals, nor ever has been. It is folly now to 
expect, in the future, what the past has wholly 
failed to produce. Indeed, it may be asserted 
with perfect truth, that there is not to be found, 
upon the face of the globe, a body of laborers 
whose physical wants are so Svell supplied, and 
whose toils add so much to the general happi- 
ness and welfare of the world. What negro 
per failed to pay his, lawyer's or doctor's 
bill; or suffered for bread or bacon to eat, or for 
somebody to watch^over him when sick ? If you 
do hot own him, you eat the bread, the meat, the 
sugar, and the rice that he produces, and wear 
the cotton thai be cultivates; he pays as much 
taxes as you, and lessens your burdens- Away, 
then, with your vile fabrications about " the 
blighting curse of slavery!" God has not con- 
demned it, and the nations have practiced it in 
all ages. Civil government is lawful only because 



it conduces in the greatest degree to the general 
welfare. The same great principle of public policy 
demands that the Americo-negro should forever be 
a slave. The white man who fails or refuses to 
control the negro who lives on the same soil with 
him, violates the will of Heaven as much as he 
would by a war upon all government. God has 
given to one the talent to govern — the other is 
only fit to be a slave. It is charity, brotherly love, 
moral duty, political wisdom, national wealth 
and power, to hold him in servitude, which is the 
only position that he has yet shown himself capa- 
ble of filling. To turn him loose among us would 
ruin the white race, and be a selfish cruelty to the 
negro, as base as that of Dives to Lazarus. In 
mental and physical characteristics he is different 
and antagonistic to the white man; and all the 
tears of his pretended friends cannot make his 
skin white, or elevate him to the level of the supe- 
rior race. Their course questions the ways of 
Omnipotence in regard to their colored brethren; 
but they may find consolation in the reflection, 
that there are many strange facts in God's provi- 
dence, the reason of which his creatures cannot 
know. I wonder every day why it is, that these 
pestiferous swarms of noisy politicians, clad in 
the sable habiliments of the negro — more fearful 
and disgusting than the plagues of Egypt — with 
slander, faction, strange doctrine, and unholy 
aspersions in their mouths, come up from every 
quarter of our northern borders, to destroy our 
good name, dishonor our homes, overturn the 
Constitution, and shed the blood of the first born 
of the land, by civil war. Can it be, that, in the 
very morning of our national existence, the wrath 
of an offended Heaven is to be visited upon us? 
or may we not believe that the prince of darkness, 
attacking our early weakness, as he did our first 
parents in the Garden of Eden, has lei loose this 
odious brood from the infernal world, to destroy 
a Government whose progress to greatness will 
banish discord and tyranny from the world? 

The number, skill, and capital of im migration , 
being chiefly confined to the northern Slates, has 
given them a preponderance in population, but 
furnishes no ground for coarse and vulgar philip- 
pics against the institution of slavery. In all the 
elements that constitute a wise, powerful, and 
prosperous community, the southern people are 
fully equal to their northern brethren. Perhaps 
my partiality might place the people and institu- 
tions of my native State far in the ascendant, but 
such comparisons are unbecoming; though I will 
say to northern gentlemen, I have seen your 
States — go and look at mine. You will find no 
" blighting curse of slavery" there; nor will you 
boast, unless falsehood suits you better than truth. 
The freest men that live are found in the south- 
ern States; no white man there can be made a 
slave. We are your equals, and must forever 
be, or this Union cannot stand. Of every inch 
of territory, acquired by our common blood and 
treasure, we claim a share. We are willing to 
submit its destiny to the great law of S< ulement 
and population. We ask no aid to help us on; 
but congressional power shall never again destroy 
our rights. You abuse us, and we submit; not 
I ii cause we are weak, but because you are our 
I countrymen. The South is fully equal to her 
own defense. Count our negroes as pari of our 
people, and no equal number of men can this day 



be found upon the globe possessing as much mil- 
itary power. Our social system you impliedly 
admit to be better than yours; for, when brought 
in conflict, yours is borne down, and you cry to 
Congress, " Save us — or we sink !" 

I will now read the testimony of the Hon. Dan- 
iel Mace, and show that this Kansas matter caps 
the climax of this dishonest system of political 
warfare : 

" Immediately after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska 
act, I, together with a number of others, who were mem- 
bers of Congress and Senators, believing that the tendency 
of that act would be to make Kansas a slave State, in order 
to prevent informed an association here in Washington, 
called, if I recollect aright, " The Kansas Aid Society." I 
do net remember all who became members of that society, 
but quite a number of members who were opposed to sla- 
very in Kansas, of the lower House, and also of the Senate, 
became members of it, and subscribed various sums of 
money. I think 1 subscribed either $50 or .f 100 ; I am not 
now prepared to say which. " ***** 

"My recollection is, that generally, those members of the 
House and Senate who were opposed to the Kansas-Ne- 
braska act became members of this society, and contributed 
to it." ********* 

" I do not recollect whether Mr. Speaker Banxs was a 
member of that society or not, or whether Senator Seward 
was or not. Mr. Goodrich kept the books. My impres- 
sion is, that a majority of those who voted against the bill 
were members of that organization. I do not remember 
the total amount of money raised by means of that organi- 
zation. We had a room he/e, and employed a secretary, 
and consequently had expenses to pay. 1 do not know the 
amount raised. I think there were persons, members of 
that association, who were not members of either House of 
Congress. Mr. Latham was appointed treasurer, but de- 
clined; and my impression is, that Mr. Blair became the 
treasurer; but I may be mistaken about that." 

Here is clearly shown a conspiracy of all the 
opposition members of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, with many others, to defeat an 
act passed by Congress in accordance with the 
forms of the Constitution. They levy money to 
resist the laws of the United States, and in 
reason and morals are as much responsible for 
consequences as if they had " levied war." Yet, 
now, they come shedding guilty tears over 
"bleeding Kansas," covered though they be 
with the crimes of treason, murder, and civil war. 
Many of you who hold seats on this floor in 
connection with such men as Sumner, Seward, 
Hale, and Wilson, have not only given " aid 
and comfort," but you are the real authors of 
this bloody drama of treason and revolution that 
now disturbs our peace and stains our history; 
on your heads rests the guilt of every drop of 
blood that has been shed, and every life that has 
been lost in that unfortunate struggle. Posterity 
•will write the dark sentence against you, of cow- 
ardly conspirators and law-breakers, who dared 
not " nobly face the horrid front of war;" but, 
standing far away from the bloody conflict, in 
hope of political aggrandizement, you coolly urged 
your deluded victims on to battle and to death. 
Your treason is no less distinctly marked; your 
agencies no less corrupt and infamous; your at- 
tempts against the peace and safety of the nation 
are no less impudent and dangerous, than Cat- 
iline's to the Roman republic; and yet you still 
live to disgrace the country you have tried to 
ruin. And now, here before the world, in the 
names of the Doyles and the Wilkinsons, once 
citizens of my own State, whose innocent blood 
now cries from the plains of Kansas for ven- 
geance. 1 denounce you as guilty murderers, 
such as I have described, and against whom the 



weeping widow and helpless orphan should im- 
plore the wrath of an insulted nation. 

What better evidence could you furnish the 
world of your revolutionary designs, than this 
attempt to transfer the government of Kansas to 
your guilty agents, who, under your traitorous 
advice, have made war upon the government 
which Congress established ? If you had enter- 
tained an honest purpose to settle this question 
fairly, without an appeal to the God of battles, 
why did you not bring in a bill securing the free- 
dom of the ballot-box by every possible restric- 
tion, and provide for the assembling of a con- 
vention to form a State constitution, for admission 
into the Union with or without slavery, as they 
should determine ? You know that, if this was 
done, whatever might be the result, the southern 
people would submit without a murmur; but it 
suited your purpose better to indorse the treason 
you had created, and excite sectional hatred and 
party strife to their wildest deeds, by artfully 
uttering your war cries, " Restoration of the Mis- 
souri compromise !" " No more slave States or 
slave Territories shall be allowed to the Union !." 

To prove the hypocrisy and insincerity of this 
loud lament over the repeal of the Missouri com- 
promise, it is only necessary to advert to a few 
facts. When did northern men become so much 
in love with that measure, and what was it that 
stirred the deep fountains of their affections? It 
was not thus in 1820, nor was it in 1848, when 
every northern man in the House, but four, voted 
down a proposition to extend this compromise to 
the Pacific. Nor was it in 1850, when southern 
Representatives unanimously, for near fifty times, 
proposed and humbly begged their northern breth- 
ren to extend this line, and thereby forever quiet 
the strife that threatened our national safety. 
Northern men were then swift to trample this 
now darling measure under their feet, against the 
votes and wishes of every southern man, regard- 
less of the dangers that then beset the Union; for 
it did seem that the heavy footsteps of the angry 
god of war might almost be heard trampling 
down your Capitol and Constitution. So fierce 
and unyielding was the opposition, that my hon- 
orable colleague, (Mr. G. W. Jones,) in a speech 
which he made, said he would accept the Missouri 
compromise; but to advocate it was to oppose a 
settlement. And my then colleague, (Hon. A. 
Ewing,) said, in substance: " The people of Ten- 
nessee are for the compromise bill; but it is time 
to understand the North. We do not wish the 
concessions of this bill, like Dead Sea fruit, to 
turn to ashes on our lips. Non-intervention 
admits States free or slave, as the people may 
determine. If, hereafter, we are to struggle for 
our rights, adjustment is useless." And thus it 
is seen that northern men, by repudiating and re- 
fusing to carry it out, repealed and annulled the 
very act they now clamor for, and in law and in 
conscience discharged southern men from all its 
obligations. 

The principle of non-intervention, commonly 
called the compromise of 1850, was established 
upon the ruins of the geographical line of 1820. 
That clause in the Utah, INew Mexico, and Kan- 
sas-Nebraska bills, which gives to the people of 
those Territories the power to form their own 
constitution, with or without slavery, effectually 
repeals all former restrictions. The repealing 



LIBRARY OF CONGRE! 



8 



section of the Kansas bill adds nothing to its 
strength; and if stricken out, southern interests 
under the bill would not in any degree be weak- 
ened. To have carried out the Missouri com- 
promise according to its intent and meaning, it 
should have been extended to the Pacific ocean; 
and although it violated the rights of freemen to 
form their own government, and was therefore 
unconstitutional and void from the beginning, 
yet the South, regarding it as an honorable agree- 
ment, entered into by contending parties to escape 
the dangers of a destroying litigation, kept it in 
good faith up to 1850, when the whole North, 
as they had done in 1848, almost unanimously 
trampled it under foot, in spite of southern effort. 
You did this to secure to yourselves California, 
Utah, and New Mexico; and then, in 1854, to 
rob us of Kansas, you clamored for its renewal, 
and entered into secret and fraudulent societies 
to defeat the law that guarantied our rights; and 
now, having failed in all these things, like desper- 
ate and beaten gamesters, whose trumps have 
been exhausted, you attempt on this floor, by 
force of superior numbers, to seize the stakes. 

With these facts before the world, northern 
Representatives stand up here, and talk about 
" broken faith," violated compacts," "audacious 
encroachments of the slave power." And now, 
s r, I dare these lordly hypocrites, one and all, 
vho claim to be statesmen and lovers of truth, 
to rise here and show me a single instance, before 
1854, where northern men ever sustained or voted 
for the Missouri compromise, or any other com- 
promise upon the question of slavery. At the 
subsequent Congress, Messrs. Jackson and Hill- 
yer each introduced resolutions- affirming the 
compromise of 1850 as a final settlement of the 
slavery agitation. Ten Whigs, and thirty-six 
Democrats, was the largest vote ever given by 
the North for either of these resolutions; and I 
again challenge northern men to show where, at 
any other time, they have given so many votes 
in favor of this or any other compromise. 

These facts ought to disgrace forever, in the 
sight of honest men, those reckless leaders who 
have disturbed the peace and quiet of the coun- 
try by a false clamor. Yet, sir, I regret to say 
that it does not; but injuries to our people are 
repaid by honors at home. The South is already 
regarded by these leaders as a conquered and 
dishonored province, that they may slander and 
trample down to the iowest degradation in perfect 
safety. No statement is too false or monstrous 
to be proclaimed to their misguided followers. 
In the New York Herald, of the 20th of June, 
a man named Wilson, from the State of Massa- 
chusetts, at a meeting in Philadelphia, to ratify 
the nomination of Fremont, is reported to have 
said: " In the South there were fifteen slave 
States, which were growing poorer under the 
blighting curse of slavery; there freedom of 
speech Was unknown; there was no free press; 
there labor was not respected; there the laborer 
was degraded." I brand this whole statement 
as a false, reckless, and infamous slander, well 
known to him who uttered it. 

The South is not only rich and growing richer 
most rapidly, but her agricultural products are 




one of the greatest eli 
perity and power, a: " 016 089 325 A 

factoring and commercial greatness ui ivina»>v,i IU 
setts. And it may well be doubted whether there 
is a spot on the habitable globe where freedom of 
speech and independence of action are so fully 
enjoyed as by the citizens of the southern States. 
There you find no fanaticism, no popular cur- 
rents; no combination of demagogues to force 
individual cooperation; and it is astonishing that 
there should be found upon this continent a being 
in the shape of man so lost to all sense of shame 
as to utter a slander so false and groundless. 

The next charge, that " there is no free press 
in the South," considering that the papers from 
all parts of the Union are read there, is so pal- 
pably malicious and false that it is impossible to 
conceive a motive for its utterance, except that it 
be a rule of Black Republicanism that its greatest 
slanderer is entitled to its highest honor. The 
free white men are all equal in the South — the 
honest laborer is universally respected and kindly 
treated. Nothing would be more likely to arouse 
a southern community than an attempt to degrade 
a free man. In the South the poor man is re- 
spected for his color, while in the North wealth 
is the rule of distinction and poverty is scorned 
and excluded from the social circle to a far greater 
extent than with the southern people. 

When, from such a state of things, you find a 
man uttering a falsehood calculated to arouse the 
hostile feelings of two great sections of our coun- 
try, it is fair to conclude that there is no crime 
or deed of darkness beneath the sun that he would 
not commit for the smallest consideration, pro- 
vided it involved no personal danger. Such a 
man will destroy your, character — steal your prop- 
erty — s,wear away your liberty or life — murder 
his friend or his enemy by poison or lying in 
wait, whenever it is necessary to accomplish his 
purposes. Webster, who murdered Parkman,was 
an angel of light, compared to the deep villany 
of such a heart. Webster murdered, and took 
the risks of his deed. This man would steal life 
and character under the forms of law; and yet, it 
may be that he occupies one of life's high places. 
Angels have fallen from God's right hand. Men, 
worse than devils, sometimes ascend to high sta- 
tions. 

This is a fair specimen of the unholy warfare 
carried on against the southern people by the 
unscrupulous ambition of Seward, Hale, Sum- 
ner, and Wilson. I grant that they have tal- 
ents to make speeches, and can pile falsehood 
upon falsehood, until, like the tower of Babel, they 
threaten heaven; yet, they only build the monu- 
ment of their own infamy. They say they are no 
better than negroes, and future generations will 
pronounce them far worse; for, since the fall of 
Adam, so great a treason has not been attempted 
against the human race. Satan came disguised 
as a serpent, professing wisdom; they come in 
the garb of a negro, professing freedom. Satan 
artfully contrived to have the law of God broken; 
they seek to trample the Constitution and the 
southern people under foot, and, like that same 
fallen angel, to build the throne of their power 
upon the ruins of their victims. 



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016 089 325 4 



